Democracy Without Borders

Rami G. Khouri

April 13, 2005

Rami G. Khouri is editor at large of the Beirut-based Daily Star newspaper, published throughout the Middle East with the International Herald Tribune.

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I have spent the last three days in Doha, Qatar, participating in a rich discussion among 150 Americans and citizens from Islamic countries around the world, which has clarified a few important trends in American-Islamic world relations. The center of gravity of the public debate about the Arab-Islamic world, and between Americans and Muslims, is slowly shifting. It is moving away from wars for regime change and clashes of civilizations, into a discussion of democracy and reform. Most intriguingly and significantly, a core issue in this global debate became more clear to me and many other participants here at the U.S.-Islamic World Forum, organized by the State of Qatar and the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. It is the issue of whether, and how, to include Islamist parties and groups in the democratic process.

As Arab and Islamic societies become more democratic, the most credible, organized and legitimate groups in society are likely to be Islamist parties like Hezbollah, Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood. If they are denied participation in elections—or denied incumbency if they win—the democratic process will prove to be a sham. But, it is also asked, can they participate in politics and share in power if they remain armed? Significantly, the core of the debate now is not about whether these groups should participate politically, but how they can do so in a manner that is acceptable to all concerned.

Other dimensions of the shifting debate are also clearer these days. These include greater stress on how to promote reform in Arab-Asian-Islamic societies, expand the circle of participants in pluralistic, democratic politics, adjust economic and educational policies to support development and security, and understand better the centrality for Arabs and Muslims of resolving the Palestine issue fairly.

Participants here frankly aired and debated their views, but in a spirit and context that were markedly different from similar gatherings in previous years. Democratic reforms have more rapidly emerged as the central pivot around which most of the discussion now revolves, while the mutual criticisms and complaints remain largely the same.

Political leaders and civil society activists need to grasp and act on this novelty: the promotion of democracy and economic reforms in Arab-Islamic countries provides an unprecedented opportunity for people from both societies to work together for goals they share, to redress problems they both suffer from, and to achieve results that will benefit them all. Never in recent generations have Arabs, Americans and Muslims been able to rally around a single, shared political goal that they all perceive to be legitimate, urgent, useful and practicable.

Much has happened in the three years since the 9/11 attacks against targets in the United States, the two years since the United States used its armed forces to change the regimes in two Islamic countries, and more than a decade after the "clash of civilizations" question was raised by Samuel Huntington. The small but clear shifts in the core discourse between concerned Americans and Muslims and Arabs has been in the making for more than a decade. It has only been clarified in the past nine months or so, due to a combination of factors.

Some of the most important ones include:

• American-engineered deeds and failures in Iraq;
• Washington's predatory, aggressive global policy since 9/11, and the world's equally strong defiance and resistance to unilateral American militarism;
• the slow reconciliation and revived partnership for global action between the United States and Europe;
• more dynamic indigenous Arab movements for democratic change and freedom in response to collective Arab mediocrity in the governance field;
• a stronger American embrace of the policy of promoting freedom and democracy;
• fears about the growing scourge and expanding scope of terrorism; and,
• a global emphasis on the centrality of resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict for promoting other mutually identified goals in the Arab-Islamic world.

The shifts are discernible but not gigantic, significant but not yet decisive. They are important to acknowledge and nurture, however, because they may offer the edge of a thin thread that Americans, Arabs, Asians and Muslims can grasp and weave into a strong rope that can pull them all out of their cycle of anger, fear and war. This is a challenge that will require the best of Americans and citizens and leaders in Islamic societies.

An important element in the slow change that may be taking place in how Americans and Arabs/Muslims deal with each other is a growing appreciation for the fact that the rules of internal democracy in one country must apply to relations among countries—and the expansion of democratic societies around the world. Specifically—as many Arabs and Muslims repeatedly told Americans here this week—all countries have to abide by a universal set of rules and norms, just as all citizens of a democracy should enjoy equal rights and obligations.

This means that the United States and Israel, for example, cannot set their own rules on issues related to security or weapons of mass destruction proliferation, and expect the rest of the world to accept lower standards of security or national rights. A credible democratic culture, it was stressed here, requires that all citizens within a state, as well as all countries in the world, abide by common legal norms.

We are far from achieving this condition, but movement is toward that direction—and toward closer positions, after many years of Arabs, Americans and Muslims moving in different directions and often shooting each other on the way.